I assume that this is also someone executing a mandatory response; but what, exactly, is a fighter aircraft intended to do about a bomb on an airliner?
Is it there out of concern that the flight crew might refuse to divert to an airport somewhere less thickly settled on the theory that maybe somebody timed it wrong and a delayed landing is more dangerous than a fast one? Just in case there’s some exotic hijacking plot that involves opening with a hoax bomb threat? Because nobody wants to admit that there isn’t a whole lot to be done aside from landing and hoping it’s a hoax?
I can see having one on hand for hijackers, in case you disagree with their choice of direction sufficiently strongly; but when the threat is that the plane might explode sending someone whose main qualification is an ability to blow up the plane seems redundant.
